New Releases October 8

Mystery

Scene of Crime, is a seasonal festive murder mystery from Jill McGown, the critically acclaimed author of Murder at the Old VicarageIt's three days before Christmas, and the Malworth Amateur Dramatic Society's rehearsals of Cinderella, scripted by local GP Carl Bignall, is struggling thanks to a flu epidemic.

But as rehearsals finally get under way at the Riverside Theatre, the police across town have entered Carl's house - and discovered the body of his wife, Estelle . . .

Why was Carl so late for rehearsal? Why is the Bignalls' neighbour so reluctant to tell the truth about what he witnessed? And why is Dr Denis Leeward, Carl's partner, sitting in his car, slightly bruised and in a state of guilty panic?

All Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd knows for sure, as he takes charge of the investigation, is that one of them is a murderer . . .

Body Mind

Meditations for Mortals takes us on a liberating, invigorating journey toward a more meaningful life—a journey that begins not with fantasies of the ideal existence but with the reality in which we actually find ourselves. It brings themes at the heart of Oliver Burkeman’s bestselling Four Thousand Weeks—our finite time, the lure of distraction, the productivity trap—into our daily lives. Looking beyond the challenges of time management to the most fundamental questions about how to live, he offers here a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life that he calls “imperfectionism.”

How can we embrace our nonnegotiable limitations? Or make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? How to shed the illusion that life will really begin as soon as we can “get on top of everything”?

Reflecting on quotations drawn from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help, Burkeman explores a combination of practical tools and daily shifts in perspective. The result is a life-enhancing and surprising challenge to much familiar advice—and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully. Designed either as a four-week “retreat of the mind” or to be devoured in one or two sittings, Meditations for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In our anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.

Fantasy / Humorous

Darla Drake, Duchess of Death, is a legendary monster who has haunted the woods around Camp Clear Creek for years. Until an existential crisis forces her to take a sabbatical from wreaking havoc on pimply teens while she figures out what she really wants from the rest of her (possibly infinite) life. But what does a monster do when her malevolent days are over? For Darla, it’s spending time with the decapitated—yet still overbearing—head of her mother, reading romance novels she steals from campers, and struggling with one monstrous case of melancholy. Until Jarko Murkvale arrives in Clear Creek and turns Darla’s life upside down.

Jarko is a conceited, arrogant, infuriating, and unfortunately for Darla, kind of hot. And with the Duchess of Death on the shelf, Jarko has staked his claim on Camp Clear Creek. But Darla refuses to go down without a fight, and so in order to reclaim her territory she challenges Jarko to a series of hunts to see who the most fearsome monster really is.

But the more mayhem they cause, the more Darla begins to realize there’s more to this brash monster than she believed…and that Jarko may just be the antidote to her ennui. But there’s a reason Jarko came to Clear Creek, and in order to fill her nine-chambered heart, Darla will have to unravel the mystery of who this closed-off monster really is. And if they can manage to not literally tear each other limb from limb, Darla and Jarko just might find that couples who slay together, stay together.

Kids 9-12

Boog and her best friends, Cedrick, Jules, and Aaron—aka The Squad—stick together, no matter what. Now that vampires have returned, they’ll need to take their Vanquisher lessons more seriously than ever. But who is behind this return of the undead?

When strange disappearances begin across their community and the Department of Vampire Affairs not-so-subtly warns Boog’s mom to keep quiet about vampires returning, it looks like uncovering the truth won't be so easy. The Squad is eager to kick some undead butt, but will they be able to convince their parents they are ready to fight alongside the Vanquishers?

Personal Development

Photographer, entrepreneur, and bestselling author, Chase Jarvis has collaborated with some of the world’s most successful athletes, entrepreneurs, performers, and artists. What’s the secret to a good life? he’s asked them. Is it having enough money in the bank? Chasing the right dream? Surrounding themselves with the right people? What are the secrets not just of success but of fulfillment?
In Never Play It Safe, Jarvis reveals the surprising answer: It’s not a new gadget, technique, or life-hack. It’s something much simpler. Instead of striving for external validation, the key is to look inside and leverage the tools already available to every single one of us.
By digging deep into the seven essential levers, Jarvis shows you how to get honest with yourself, unleash your own creativity, and build the life you’ve always wanted. Filled with stories and insights from some of the world’s top performers and thought leaders, including the author himself, Never Play It Safe will reshape how you think about attention, time, intuition, constraints, play, work, failure, and practice to help you achieve extraordinary results and become more creative, fulfilled, and successful every day. 

Historical Fiction

1348. As the Black Plague lays waste to Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned back to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—using the ancient practices of alchemy she learned as a young girl, she can heal the sick. But when word traveled of her unusual craft, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now, the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.
​She obliges, assuming the city’s leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amidst a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different mission: she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence's churches for priceless relics, leaving mysterious vials of brightly colored liquids in their place. If she succeeds, she’ll be a recognized physician, never accused of witchcraft again.
But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she’s merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she’s been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won’t think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want…

Personal Growth

A gentle, wise guide for Christians deconstructing their beliefs and struggling with the role of faith in their life.As a “good Christian,” Karla Kamstra attended church every Sunday, listened to the pastor, and committed to functions and activities. But no amount of participation could shake her growing sense of spiritual unrest. As time went on, she realized that she was doing Christianity on autopilot—going through the motions, but spiritually checked out.

She finally understood that the rules of the church were keeping God inside a too-small box, and it was time to let "Him" out. And so Karla embarked upon her sacred journey of deconstruction: healing her religious trauma and reclaiming her spirituality.

Now, Rev Karla shares her journey in this wise, gentle guide to help anyone struggling with the role of faith in their lives. Readers are called to demolish the oppressive, patriarchal structure upon which their faith has been built, repair what experiences with dysfunctional and destructive religion may have done to them, and restore their hearts and souls. Deconstructing will lead readers from silent obedience to sacred empowerment, from religious dogma to spiritual freedom, from toxic theology to authentic faith. For anyone chafing against the confines of church doctrine—it's time to release God from the rules.

Fantasy / Romance

he Serpent & the Wings of Night meets Shadow and Bone in a seductive, star-crossed, dark romantic fantasy loosely inspired by the Greek myths of Astraea."The brightest star needs the darkest night."

Astraea is a prisoner of her own mind, the past sliding from her grasp like water. But she knows she must escape the tyrannical king who holds her captive and find her clouded memories once again. This quest leads her to the Libertatem, a succession of trials hosted by the king in which five human lands compete for a cycle of safety from the vampires seeking blood, claiming souls, and savaging after dark.

But even winning the Libertatum will not keep Astraea safe from vampires. She’s made a bargain with Nyte, the beautiful, deadly vampire who stalks her dreams and haunts her waking hours. He promises to keep her safe, but she knows she cannot trust him, cannot trust his lies, even as she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into his seductive embrace.

Caught between Nyte and her own mysteries, Astraea must decide if winning the Libertatem for her kingdom is worth her life, or if protection—and the answers to her past—really are her strongest desires.

"The" book for every Swiftie

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This definitive book of Taylor Swift's fashion evolution is a journey through all 10 eras with over 200 photographs—the book that Swifties have been waiting for! This gorgeous, four-color hardcover edition has gilded gold edges, foiled cover accents, and colored endpapers.
For Taylor Swift, fashion and music go hand-in-hand—each playing a powerful role in shaping the narrative of this generation’s most prolific storyteller. Red lipstick isn’t just a makeup choice—it’s the emblem of an era. A mini skirt isn’t simply part of a cute outfit—it’s a coat of armor. From cowboy boots to teetering heels, fairytale dresses to bleach-tinged tresses, and the many memorable moments in between, Taylor Swift Style tells the fashion story behind every single Taylor Swift album, tracing Swift’s musical evolution along with her ever-changing personal style.

From red carpet looks, to streetwear, to tour costumes, Sarah Chapelle of the successful Instagram and blog Taylor Swift Style, has spent more than a decade documenting Swift’s fashion choices and exploring the meaning behind each ensemble. Her deep dives into albums, songs, and behind-the-scenes insights paint a portrait of a megastar who knows exactly what she is doing. Taylor Swift Style seeks to explain the ‘why’ behind Swift’s outfits—the easter eggs and deeper meanings behind every hemline and haircut—that speak to the emotional context of each musical moment.

With over two hundred photos dating from Swift’s earliest days as a country singer in Nashville, up through the present, paired with insightful commentary, Taylor Swift Style is a one-of-a-kind keepsake for Swifties.

Fantasy / Romance

It takes a lot of commitment to make a marriage between a modern ceremonial magician and a tarot witch work, but when a malevolent entity takes up residence in Rhys and Moira’s home, their love will be pushed to the limits.

Brewing up a solution is easier said than done when your magical styles are polar opposites; throw a psychic ex and a secret society in the mix, and things are bound to get messy.​

Poetry

Tracing the legacy of Margaret Atwood—a writer who has fundamentally shaped the contemporary literary landscapes--Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961–2023 assembles Atwood’s most vital poems in one essential volume.

In pieces that are at once brilliant, beautiful, and hyper-imagined, Atwood gives voice to remarkably drawn characters—mythological figures, animals, and everyday people—all of whom have something to say about what it means to live in a world as strange as our own. “How can one live with such a heart?” Atwood asks, casting her singular spell upon the reader and ferrying us through life, death, and whatever comes next. Atwood, in her journey through poetry, illuminates our most innate joys and sorrows, desires and fears.

Spanning six decades of work—from her earliest beginnings to brand-new poems—this volume charts the evolution of one of our most iconic and necessary authors.

Social Science

Haunted States is a unique guidebook that explores the dark, often horrifying, history of the US. Based on the author’s journey across the United States in summer 2022, it explores locations connected to Gothic fiction and film, tracking the relationship between the American landscapes and the various forms of fictional horror the nation has produced over the centuries.

Part cultural history and part travelogue, Haunted States traces how the American Gothic draws inspiration from the natural and built environments, with the astounding geographical variation of the landscape influencing the distinctive forms of horror produced across its many diverse regions. The book also investigates how the horrors of the American Gothic have their roots in the nation’s dark history of colonialism, slavery, violence and oppression – past sins that continue to haunt the national consciousness to this day. Taking horror (in literature, film and the visual arts) as its starting point, Haunted States investigates the landscapes, places and cultures that produced it.

Incorporating first-person travel narrative, historical context and supplementary interviews, Haunted States journeys across the USA to learn about its eclectic, regional forms of horror.

Cooking

It’s Tuesday, 4 p.m. What’s for dinner? For busy people that want something good to eat, culinary powerhouse New York Times Cooking makes meal planning easy, with thousands of recipes to explore in the app. In Easy Weeknight Dinners, Editor in Chief Emily Weinstein has curated some of the greatest hits—100 favorite dishes that you can make in 60 minutes or less, from trusted writers Melissa Clark, Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, Ali Slagle, and more, served with mouth-watering photos and notes from the NYT Cooking community. 

Organized by main ingredient, length of cooking time, and wow factor, you’ll find: 

• Truly fifteen-minute recipes, like Beef Short Rib Rice Bowls
• Sheet-pan miracles for easy clean-up, like Feta with Chickpeas and Tomatoes
• Minimum effort for maximum magic, like San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles
• Plate-licking sauces that steal the show, in Shrimp Fried Rice with Yum Yum Sauce

Whether you’re seeking a standout meal for one, crowd-pleasers for picky kids, or something special for company, Easy Weeknight Dinners offers versatile, flavor-packed meals for busy lives.

History

From the New York Times bestselling former NATO commander comes a riveting historical novel that charts the coming-of-age of a gifted but immature young naval officer as he is tested in the crucible of World War II in the Pacific

Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations.

Admiral James Stavridis is an acclaimed novelist, a decorated military leader, and a great student of military history. He draws on it all to capture the experience of being storm-tossed by the first bloody years of the Second World War. Scott Bradley James is a talented young officer, but he has a lot to learn. And war will have a lot to teach him.

The Restless Wave offers a gripping account of the U.S. Navy’s astonishing progress through the first three years of the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor through to the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal. A story of character under pressure in the harshest of proving grounds, it is written with careful fidelity to the truths of war that have made sea stories essential to the art of storytelling since Odysseus.

Historical Fiction

Alice Katz is a young Jewish physicist, one of the only female doctoral students at her university, studying with the famed Dr. Oppenheimer. Her well-to-do family wants her to marry a man of her class and settle down. Instead, Alice answers her country’s call to come to an unnamed city in the desert to work on a government project shrouded in secrecy.

At Los Alamos, Alice meets Caleb Blum, a poor Orthodox Jew who has been assigned to the explosives division. Around them are other young scientists and engineers who have quietly left their university posts to come live in the desert.

No one seems to know exactly what they are working on—what they do know is that it is a race and that they must beat the Nazis in developing an unspeakable weapon. In this atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, and despite their many differences, Alice and Caleb find themselves drawn to one another.

Inspired by the author’s grandparents and sure to appeal to fans of Good Night, Irene, The Sound of a Thousand Stars is a propulsive novel about love in desperate times, the consequences of our decisions, and the roles we play in history.

Romance

Holly Beech and Ivy Casey are bury-the-body besties. They’re so in sync, they even look alike. When Holly’s fiancé jilts her, leaving her in shock and with a nonrefundable honeymoon, Holly convinces Ivy to switch places. Ivy will go on the Hawaiian honeymoon her best friend can’t bear to take alone, while Holly escapes to Ivy’s rented Hudson Valley cabin to binge-watch holiday movies and heal.
    But Holly’s wallowing is interrupted when her rugged Airbnb host turns out to be her high school academic rival who’s had a major glow-up. Meanwhile, Ivy’s (now Hawaiian) annual solo art retreat is upended when Holly’s ex-fiancé checks into the honeymoon suite—with a new woman. Raging and bed-less, the last thing Ivy expects is for the hot hotel bartender to come to her rescue. Against all odds, this Christmas might prove the most magical yet.

Horror

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip on the Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end. Even worse, her boyfriend is dead and her best friend is missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. But instead of answers, she finds a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly put to death for witchcraft four centuries ago and whispers of a hex she set in retaliation. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?
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New Releases October 1

Pop Culture

Your wildest dreams have come true. Get an insider’s look at Taylor Swift’s life and achievements in this gorgeous collectible book for Swifties of all ages. Are you ready for it?

100+ stunning photos and clued-in commentary from top music and culture writers explore the power of Taylor’s music and influence–and why she’ll never go out of style.

Taylor Swift is so much more than a pop star: she has more number one albums than any other female performer in history and The Eras Tour has filled stadiums across the world. Her influence on our culture seems to know no bounds.

With more than 100 amazing photos, this luxe gift book immerses you in Taylor’s world with smart, insightful text and celebrates the global superstar as a prolific songwriter, powerful storyteller and champion of her empowerment. Inside you'll find: 

• Taylor’s many performances from singing the national anthem at local sporting events to selling out worldwide blockbuster tours
• The chart-topping launch of her 24 albums, including Taylor’s Versions, her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department and what makes her personal yet relatable music so inspiring
• Her stunning red carpet appearances at the Grammys, the Met Gala and more!

Throughout the photo-packed pages, Swifties will follow Taylor’s rise to pop icon status through all her eras with interviews from the vault of Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and Seventeen along with original essays from noted contributors.
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Science Fiction

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

Biography / History

An engrossing social history and biography of the unsinkable Mollie Moon, Harlem socialite and civil rights philanthropist extraordinaire.
“Tanisha Ford expertly uses the extravagant life of Mollie Moon to tell the hidden history of the Civil Rights Movement: a complicated tale of how the movement was funded. Captivating. Gripping. Smart.”—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning

Our Secret Society brilliantly illuminates a highly significant yet long overlooked aspect of the Civil Rights Movement: the powerhouse fundraising effort that supported the movement—the luncheons, galas, card parties, and traveling exhibitions attended by middle-class and working-class Black families, the Negro press, and titans of industry, including Winthrop Rockefeller.
No one knew this world better than Mollie Moon. With her husband, Henry Lee Moon, the longtime publicist for the NAACP, Mollie became half of one of the most influential couples of the period. Vivacious and intellectually curious, she frequently hosted political salons attended by Langston Hughes, Paul and Eslanda Robeson, Romare Bearden, Lorraine Hansberry, and other luminaries. As the president of the National Urban League Guild, the fundraising arm of the National Urban League, Mollie reigned over the glittering Beaux Arts Ball for fifty years, the premiere, interracial social event of New York society that rivaled today’s Met Gala. Mollie raised millions to fund grassroots activists battling for economic justice and racial equality.
Historian and cultural critic Tanisha C. Ford brings Mollie into focus as never before, charting her rise from Jim Crow Mississippi to civic leader and doyenne of Manhattan. Our Secret Society is both a searing portrait of a remarkable period in America and a strategic economic blueprint today’s activists can emulate.

Thriller

When a sixteen-year-old girl goes missing, it’s an utter tragedy—and an entertaining national obsession—in this thoughtful and addictively readable novel that offers a fresh and provocative take on whodunits and true crime.
“Riveting, original, and chillingly plausible, Kill Show is both an urgent reckoning with the ethics of true crime and a tense mystery in its own right. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.”—Flynn Berry, Edgar Award–winning author of Northern Spy

Sara Parcell vanished without a trace on a crisp April morning in Frederick, Maryland. Her tragic story became the centerpiece of a controversial television docuseries that followed her disappearance in real time. But is it possible that everyone missed the biggest secret of all?
Ten years after these events, the people who knew Sara best are finally ready to talk. In this genre-bending novel, Daniel Sweren-Becker fashions an oral history around the seemingly familiar crime of a teenage girl gone missing. Yet Kill Show, filled with diabolical twists and provocative social commentary, is no standard mystery. Through “interviews” with family members, neighbors, law enforcement, television executives, and a host of other compelling characters, Sweren-Becker constructs a riveting tale about one family’s tragedy—and Hollywood’s insatiable desire to exploit it.
By revealing the seedy underbelly of the true crime entertainment machine, Kill Show probes literary territory beyond the bounds of the standard whodunit; it’s a thoughtful exploration into America’s appetite for mysteries, cold cases, and violent tales and who’s really responsible for the dark stories we love to consume.

Fantasy

From Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo, a stunning new standalone novella about angels, demons & desire strong enough to burn the world: This is How You Lose the Time War meets Good OmensIn this new standalone novel, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.

A demon. An angel. A city.

The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.

And then the angels come, and the city falls.

Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.

She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.

Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.

Humor

For EVERY cat lover! 

Humor

A photographic collection of glorious avian oddities.

A visual guide to the most eccentric creatures of the skies, Feathered Freaks captures the most bizarre and beautiful feathered friends from across the globe.

From the jaw-dropping red throat of the magnificent frigatebird to the peculiar plumage of the flightless southern cassowary, these pages are filled with truly dumb-looking birds that will turn any frown upside down.

History

Drawn from NPR Music’s acclaimed, groundbreaking series Turning the Tables, the definitive book on the vital role of Women in Music—from Beyoncé to Odetta, Taylor Swift to Joan Baez, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton—featuring archival interviews, essays, photographs, and illustrations.
Turning the Tables, launched in 2017, has revolutionized recognition of female artists, whether it be in best album lists or in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
 How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music brings this impressive history and fascinating reshaping to the page and includes material draws from more than fifty years of NPR’s coverage of great musical heroes and intriguing creators. This book is a must-have for music fans, songwriters, feminist historians, and those interested in how artists think and work, including: 

• Joan Baez talking about nonviolence as a musical principle in 1971
• Dolly Parton’s favorite song and the story behind it 
• Patti Smith describing art as her “jealous mistress” in 1974
• Nina Simone, in 2001, explaining how she developed the edge in her voice as a tool against racism.
• Taylor Swift talking about when she had no idea if her musical career might work
• Odetta on how shifting from classical music to folk allowed her to express her fury over Jim Crow

 This incomparable hardcover volume is a vital record of history destined to become a classic and a great gift for any music fan or creative thinker.

Historical Fiction

The long-awaited sequel to Hild--bigger, bolder, bloodier, and even more medieval than the beloved original.Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith’s Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin’s heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead—and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.

In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood exceeds it in every way.

Fantasy

n the third of his record-shattering Kickstarter novels, #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson—creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy—brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different cultures must work together to save their worlds from certain disaster.Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her society—but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a hero—a goal that has led to nothing but heartache and isolation, leaving him always on the outside looking in. In their own ways, both of them face the world alone.

Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds. If they cannot unravel the mystery of what brought them together before it’s too late, they risk forever losing not only the bond growing between them, but the very worlds they’ve always struggled to protect.

Fantasy

From the New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore, the first book in an enthralling new fantasy series about murder, magic, and madness in post-WWII London.The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?

Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).

So begins a journey delving deep into the city’s occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever...

Named a Most Anticipated Novel by Associated Press, NPR.org, Literary Hub, Reactor, Publishers Weekly, and Parade.
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Fiction General

Set during the Great Depression, an immersive and enchantingly atmospheric novel about a girl and a bear raised as sister and brother in a remote logging camp, and the lengths to which they’ll go to protect each other.
New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly. Growing up, Pearly and Bruno share a special bond and become inseparable. While life in the camp can be perilous—loggers are regularly injured or even killed—the Everlasting family form a close-knit community with the woodsmen, who accept and embrace the tame young bear.
But all that changes when a new supervisor arrives, a ruthless profiteer who pushes the workers to their breaking point and abuses Bruno. When the man is found dead in a ditch, the blame falls on the bear; soon after, Bruno is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Determined to rescue the only brother she has ever known, Pearly, now a teenager, sets off alone on a hazardous journey through the forest—her first trip to “the Outside”—to find him. In the harrowing quest to bring him home through miles of ice and snow, eluding malevolent spirits and the cruelty of strange villagers, she will discover new worlds and a strength she never knew she possessed.
Steeped in rural folklore and superstition, and set against the backdrop of an enchanting woodland, Pearly Everlasting is a story about the triumph of good over evil, the beauty of the natural world, and the bonds that cannot be broken.

Fantasy

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic novel steeped in myth about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.

Fantasy

Bookshops & Bonedust meets Our Flag Means Death in this cozy fantasy on the low seas, where lesbian pirates find out if enemies actually can become lovers!

This trade paperback release features vivid sprayed edges, a beautiful color illustration, and a never-before-seen bonus short story!Kianthe and Reyna are on the hunt for dragon eggs to save their hometown—but it requires making a deal with Diarn Arlon, lord of the legendary Nacean River. Simply capture the river pirate Serina, who’s been plaguing Arlon's supply chains, and bring her in for justice. Easy peasy.

Begrudgingly, the couple joins forces with Bobbie, one of Arlon’s constables determined to capture the pirate. Except Bobbie and Serina have a more complicated history than anyone realized, and it might jeopardize everything.

While Kianthe and Reyna watch this relation-shipwreck from afar, it quickly becomes apparent that these disaster lesbians need all the help they can get. Luckily, matchmaking is Reyna’s favorite pastime.

The dragon eggs may have to wait.

Fiction - Political

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes a brilliant and propulsive new novel about greed, power, and American complicity set in HaitiHaiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an international embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos–and others are just looking to make it through another day.

Desperate for money—and survival—Matt teams up with his best friend and business partner Alix Variel, the adventurous only son of a socially prominent Haitian family. They set their sights on legendary shipwrecks that have been rumored to contain priceless treasures off a remote section of Haiti’s southern coast. Their ambition and exploration of these disastrous wrecks come with a cascade of ill-fated incidents—one that involves Misha, Alix’s erudite sister, who stumbles onto an arms-trafficking ring masquerading as a U.S. government humanitarian aid office, and rookie CIA case officer Audrey O’Donnell, who finds herself doing clandestine work on an assignment that proves to be more difficult and dubious than she could have possibly imagined.

Devil Makes Three’s depiction of blood politics, the machinations of power, and a country in the midst of upheaval is urgently and insistently resonant. This new novel is sure to cement Ben Fountain’s reputation as one of the twenty-first century’s boldest and most perceptive writers.

History - Asia

ACCLAIMED AS ONE OF THE YEAR’S 10 BEST BOOKS BY THE WASHINGTON POST • 12 ESSENTIAL NONFICTION BOOKS BY THE NEW YORKER • 100 NOTABLE BOOKS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • BEST BOOKS BY THE ECONOMIST, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND AIR MAIL • 10 ESSENTIAL BOOKS BY THE TELEGRAPH • THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • THE OBSERVER AND THE SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK • A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals—the largely overlooked Asian counterpart to Nuremberg

“Nothing less than a masterpiece. With epic research and mesmerizing narrative power, Judgment at Tokyo has the makings of an instant classic.”
—Evan Osnos, National Book Award–winning author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, and their fellow victors, the question of justice seemed clear: Japan’s militaristic leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against civilians in China, the Philippines, and elsewhere; and rampant abuses of prisoners of war in notorious incidents such as the Bataan death march. For the Allied powers, the trial was an opportunity to render judgment on their vanquished foes, but also to create a legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of aggressive war, building a more peaceful world under international law and American hegemony. For the Japanese leaders on trial, it was their chance to argue that their war had been waged to liberate Asia from Western imperialism and that the court was victors’ justice.

For more than two years, lawyers for both sides presented their cases before a panel of clashing judges from China, India, the Philippines, and Australia, as well as the United States and European powers. The testimony ran from horrific accounts of brutality and the secret plans to attack Pearl Harbor to the Japanese military’s threats to subvert the government if it sued for peace. Yet rather than clarity and unanimity, the trial brought complexity, dissents, and divisions that provoke international discord between China, Japan, and Korea to this day. Those courtroom tensions and contradictions could also be seen playing out across Asia as the trial unfolded in the crucial early years of the Cold War, from China’s descent into civil war to Japan’s successful postwar democratic elections to India’s independence and partition.

From the author of the acclaimed The Blood Telegram, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, this magnificent history is the product of a decade of research and writing. Judgment at Tokyo is a riveting story of wartime action, dramatic courtroom battles, and the epic formative years that set the stage for the Asian postwar era.​

Political Science

Now updated with a new preface by the author, the National Book Award winning, bestselling classic of Middle Eastern reportage.One of the most thought-provoking books ever written about the Middle East, From Beirut to Jerusalem remains vital to our understanding of this complex and volatile region of the world. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman drew upon his ten years of experience reporting from Lebanon and Israel to write this now-classic work of journalism. In a new preface, he updates his journey with a fresh analysis of the region today, setting the Gazan war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, as well as the Saudi-Iranian rivalry and epochal changes in the Gulf, in the context of a conflict between networks of “inclusion” and “resistance” that has defined the area in recent decades. Rich with anecdote, history, analysis, and autobiography, From Beirut to Jerusalem will continue to shape how we see the Middle East for many years to come.

Political Science - Psychology

A leading social scientist explains the psychology of our current social divide and how understanding it can help reduce the conflicts it causes

There has been much written about the impact of polarization on elections, political parties, and policy outcomes. But Keith Payne’s goal is more personal: to focus on what our divisions mean for us as individuals, as families, and as communities. This book is about how ordinary people think about politics, why talking about it is so hard, and how we can begin to mend the personal bonds that are fraying for so many of us.

Drawing upon his own research and his experience growing up in a working class, conservative Christian family in small town Kentucky, Payne argues that there is a near-universal human tendency to believe that people who are different from us are irrational or foolish. The fundamental source of our division is our need to flexibly rationalize ideas in order to see ourselves as good people. 

Understanding the psychology behind our political divide provides clues about how we can reduce the damage it is causing. It won’t allow us to undo our polarization overnight, but it can give us the tools to stop going around in circles in frustrating arguments. It can help us make better choices about how we engage in political debates, how policy makers and social media companies deal with misinformation, and how we deal with each other on social media. It can help us separate, if we choose to, our political principles from our personal relationships so that we can nurture both.

Horror

"A harrowing exploration of the expanding labyrinth of despair and the self." Paul Tremblay.

A mindbending and visceral experimental horror about a young man trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station, perfect for readers of Mark Z. Danielewski and Susanna Clarke.

Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station.

Determined to find a way out again, he starts to explore the rooms and corridors ahead of him. But no matter how many claustrophobic hallways or vast cathedral-esque rooms he passes through, the exit is nowhere in sight.

The more he explores his strange new prison, the more he becomes convinced that he hasn’t been trapped there accidentally, and amongst the shadows and concrete, he comes to realise that he almost certainly is not alone.

A terrifying psychological nightmare from a powerful new voice in horror.

Mystery

Murder is (literally) not her department, but this grim reaper has to solve one--fast--or her new client won't be able to move on.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex's baby. She's also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that's the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client's soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why. 

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy's soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.

Fiction - Gothic

A “haunting, brilliant” Appalachian folktale evoking the Southern gothic suspense of Sharp Objects and the eco spine-tinglers of Jeff Vandermeer (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts)

Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.

New Releases September 10

History

From Washington to Jefferson, Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Kennedy to Nixon, Reagan to Obama and Biden, the 45 United States presidents have left lasting impacts on our nation. Some of their legacies continue today, some are justly forgotten, and some have changed as America has changed. Whether famous, infamous, or obscure, all the presidents shaped our nation in unexpected ways.


The authors' extensive research has uncovered never before seen historical facts based on private correspondence and newly discovered documentation, such as George Washington's troubled relationship with his mother.

In Confronting the Presidents, O’Reilly and Dugard present 45 wonderfully entertaining and insightful portraits of each president, with no-spin commentary on their achievements—or lack thereof. Who best served America, and who undermined the founding ideals? Who were the first ladies, and what were their surprising roles in making history? Which presidents were the best, which the worst, and which didn’t have much impact? How do decisions made in one era, under the pressure of particular circumstances, still resonate today? And what do presidents like to eat, drink, and do when they aren’t working—or even sometimes when they are?

These and many more questions are answered in each fascinating chapter of Confronting the Presidents. Written with O’Reilly and Dugard’s signature style, authority, and eye for telling detail, Confronting the Presidents will delight all readers of history, politics, and current affairs, especially during the 2024 election season.

Historical Fiction

In the tranquil rural town of Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with shadows of war on the horizon and the legal restrictions prohibiting widows from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.


Then the unthinkable happens: as England prepares to enter the war, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars – including the (very handsome!) Mr. Fisk. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties: books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, she desperately misses her daughter, and the library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.


As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

History

Until Scandinavia converted to Christianity and came under the rule of powerful kings, the Vikings were a dominant force in the medieval world. Outfitted with wind-powered sailing ships, they left their mark, spreading terror across Europe, sacking cities, deposing kings, and ransacking entire economies. After the Vikings, the world was never the same.

But as much as we know about this celebrated culture, there is a large missing piece: its women. All but ignored by contemporary European writers, these shadowy figures were thought to have played little part in the famous feats of the Vikings, instead remaining at home as wives, mothers, and homemakers.

In this cutting-edge, revisionist portrait, renowned science journalist Heather Pringle turns those assumptions on their head, using the latest archaeological research and historical findings to reveal this group as they actually were. Members of a complex society rich in culture, courage, and a surprisingly modern gender ideology, the women of the Viking age were in fact forces to be reckoned with, serving as:

• Sorceresses
• Warriors
• Traders
• Artisans
• Explorers
• Settlers
• Landowners
• Power brokers
• Queens

Both ambitious and compelling, THE NORTHWOMEN is the true story of some of the most captivating figures of the Viking world—and what they reveal about the modern age.​

Romance

He’s the royal bodyguard. She’s the royal nanny. The annoyingly hot attraction that simmers between them—that’s a royal pain.

James Hunter has made a tactical error. His new role as protection officer to Prince Magnus of Norway was supposed to be an exciting change. Instead he’s marooned on a royal estate in the middle of nowhere charged with chasing after demon children and dodging the machinations of meddling staff. And the crowning jewel in this little drama—the children’s nanny is none other than Laila Bruset. The woman whose heart he broke. The woman who still holds his.

When Laila took the job as a nanny for the Norwegian royal children in order to be closer to her ailing grandmother in Oslo, the last thing she expected was to have her life turned upside down—again. But as much as James gets on her nerves, he's also getting under her skin, and the tension between them sizzles just as devastatingly as before.

As undeniable sparks turn James and Laila’s battle royal into a more serious game of hearts, nanny and bodyguard will have to decide just how much they’re willing to risk for a second chance at love.

Horror

Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn't want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family's big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she's certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route.

When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored—she's never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, things take a dark turn. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts that are basically indentured servitude, and with nothing to lose, the servants have decided their only route to freedom is to get rid of the Ruskins for good…

Witchy

A beautifully presented hardcover collection of folklore and stories of legendary and historical witches from all over the world, with over 80 stunning, spooky illustrations. The perfect gift for the witchy people in your life.

For many centuries the figure of the witch has haunted our imagination and our nightmares. There have been many attempts to quash our fascination with these wielders of forbidden powers, but all have failed.

We invite you now on a journey through a moonlit world, where every shadow tells a tale of magic, persecution and persistence. In this beautifully illustrated volume, discover witches real and legendary, who once terrorized, devoured, helped or empowered their communities, but who are now largely forgotten.

Ten chapters introduce ten different categories of witches, from curse-bringers, shape-shifters and survivors to revenants, nature witches and fate-turners. Most, but far from all, are women, and their stories come from across the world.

Each chapter is linked to a different card of the Major Arcana and to a stage in the alchemical process of turning base metal to gold. In this way, as you learn about the witches, you will complete a journey of self-discovery and transformation, gleaning wisdom and empowerment from the awe-inspiring magical practitioners of folk tradition and history.

Social Science

How do smart, normal people end up enmeshed in extreme cults? Weird history expert J. W. Ocker strives to answer that question in Cult Following. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about history’s most notorious cults—and the psychology of the people who join them—is packed into this accessible, engaging volume. Walk in the footsteps of the followers who were lured into such sinister groups as:

• Branch Davidians: Led by David Koresh, this cult was waiting out the apocalypse in 1993 when the FBI infamously raided their compound in Waco, Texas.

• Los Narcosatánicos: This cult of drug traffickers in 1980s Mexico was led by Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, who believed he possessed magic powers and committed human sacrifice.

• The Seekers: The infiltration and study of this, the earliest known UFO cult, by psychologists inspired the term cognitive dissonance.

• Ho No Hana Sanpogyo: The founder, Hogen Fukunaga, claimed to be able to tell someone’s fortune by examining their feet.

• Breatharianism: Breatharians believe that humans can live on air alone. Their founder, Wiley Brooks, claimed to have gone without food for nineteen years.

• NXIVM: This twenty-first-century cult attracted several Hollywood actresses and engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering under the guise of personal development seminars.

In Cult Following, Ocker sheds light on the terrifying attraction of cults, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging, and the tragedy of trust.

Social Science

Neurodiversity is one of the most urgent political issues of our time. As the number of diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and other types of neurodivergence rises, we are starting to understand that there is no such thing as a 'normal' brain. But society is still organised around neuronormativity, and autism is treated as a disease. Jodie Hare, diagnosed with autism at twenty-three, argues it is time to redefine the politics of who we are. She calls for the recognition of diversity as part of natural variation, rather than a departure from sameness. This will have an impact on the places where we learn, work, and socialise - and Hare shows how these can be adapted to be more inclusive and accessible. She shows how we might commit to building a world where we can all thrive, one that works to combat discrimination based on race, class, gender, and disability.

Family

A leading couples therapist shares indispensable tools to help you stress-proof your relationship through life’s many challenges.Every week, couples come into Elizabeth Earnshaw’s therapy room claiming their relationship issues are stressing them out. “The reality is just the opposite,” she says. “The unprecedented collective stress we all face today is the cause of many relationship challenges couples are experiencing.” With ’Til Stress Do Us Part, this trusted expert shares the tools to protect yourself and your relationship from distress—and restore harmony, understanding, and love.

Beginning with an overview of many kinds of stress we face—from acute to chronic stress, and even positive eustress—Earnshaw uses client stories and personal experiences to reveal the visible and invisible strains on ourselves and our relationships. She then shares research-backed practices based on mindfulness and polyvagal theory to help you to detect signs of overwhelm and take proactive measures to protect, refresh, and heal yourselves. You’ll discover journaling prompts, body-based exercises, scripts, boundary-setting guidelines, and more for letting go of pressures and restoring emotional, sexual, and spiritual intimacy.

“When we become partners, we commit to taking on life’s troubles together,” says Earnshaw. Here is an essential resource for helping you return your relationship to what it should be—a refuge from stress in a turbulent and demanding world, in which we always have each other’s back.

Fiction

For readers of Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, a warm, life-affirming debut about a zany case of mistaken identity that allows a lonely old man one last chance to be part of a family.
“Would you mind terribly, old boy, if I borrowed the rest of your life? I promise I’ll take excellent care of it.”
Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. 
Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has a roof over his head, three meals a day, and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a family again. All he has to do is hope that his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up. 
As Fred navigates life in Bernard’s shoes, he learns about the man’s past and what it might take to return a life in better condition than he found it. 
Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family, from an exciting new voice in fiction.

Fiction

To be loved by your father is to be loved by God. So says Mona Dean—daughter of a man famous for one great novel, a man whose needs and insecurities exert an inescapable pull and exact an immeasurable toll on the women of his family: Mona, her sister, her half sister, their mothers. His infidelity destroyed Mona’s childhood, setting her in opposition to a stepmother who, though equally damaged, disdains her for being broken. Then, just as Mona is settling into her life as an adult and a fledgling artist, her father begins a new affair and once again drags Mona into his mess, resulting in her ejection from the family.

Mona’s tenuous stability is thrown into chaos. Only when she suffers an incalculable loss can she begin supplanting absent love with real love. Pushed to the precipice, she must decide how she wants to live, what she most needs to say, and the risks she will take to say it. Crackling with penetrating insight and devilish humor, Daughter is an obsessive, blazing examination of the forces that drive us to become, to create, and to break free.

Historical Fiction

On an isolated estate in late-eighteenth-century rural Wales, a young English doctor uncovers dangerous secrets that may threaten his own life in this spellbinding Gothic tale from the bestselling author of Pandora.
Dismissed from his post at a prestigious London hospital, Dr. Henry Talbot has little choice but to accept a mysterious offer of employment as a private physician from an inscrutable lord of a rural manor in Wales. Arriving at Plas Helyg, Lord Julian’s isolated estate, Henry can’t speak the language and finds himself treated with hostile suspicion by superstitious villagers, whose beliefs in myths and magic he’s inclined to dismiss. But when he discovers that his predecessor died under peculiar, inexplicable circumstances, his determination to uncover the truth leads him down a path fraught with danger—made all the more perilous by his headstrong, reluctant ally Linette, Lord Julian’s niece.
Linette has lived a lonely life as Plas Helyg’s unconventional mistress: her uncle treats her with disdain, her father is long dead, and her mother, long plagued by strange spells and believed by everyone around her to be deeply unwell, spends most of her time locked away in her rooms. Fiercely self-reliant, Linette refuses to wear women’s clothes, has no interest in marriage, and takes an interest in the welfare of the men working in Lord Julian’s mines, against his wishes.
Linette has always suspected something is not quite right in the village, but it is only through Henry's dogged investigations that the dark truth about those closest to her will come to light—a truth that will bind hers and Henry's destinies together forever in ways neither thought possible.

Romance

Naomi Kelly will do anything to make her new brand consulting business a success. When she lands a career saving contract to rebrand the Mukherjee family’s failing local bazaar, she knows there can be no mistakes. But as the “oops” baby of a free-spirited Bengali mother, Naomi’s lack of connection to her roots represents everything Gia Mukherjee disdains.

Enter, Dev Mukherjee.

Dev knows everything his mother wants…including her wish for him to get married, like, yesterday. When Gia hires a matchmaker (without, you know, asking him), Dev vows to do whatever it takes to avoid ending up in a cold, loveless marriage. When a potential match assumes Naomi is his girlfriend, the solution to both their problems becomes clear: Naomi will pretend to date Dev in order to sabotage his mother’s matchmaking efforts in exchange for lessons in Bengali culture. Flawless plan, right?

But as Naomi and Dev bond over awful dancing at Garba, couples cooking classes, and tackling the rebrand as a team, they start to realize while their relationship may be fake, their feelings for each other are starting to become very real. As the line between reality and rumor blurs, Naomi and Dev must confront what it means to fit the mold, and decide how much they’re willing to risk for love.

Horror

The sole survivor of a serial killer might hold the key to stopping a new spree of murders in this propulsive horror thriller in the vein of The Black Phone and The Whisper Man.

Dark and twisting at every turn, fans of Catriona Ward will love this chilling new tale from the deviously inventive horror author that Peter Farris calls the "clear heir to Stephen King.”

Beware the one who got away . . .

Father Silence once terrorized the rural town of Twisted Tree, disguising himself as a priest to prey on the most vulnerable members of society. When the police finally found his "House of Horrors," they uncovered nineteen bodies and one survivor–a boy now locked away in a hospital for the criminally insane.

Nearly two decades later, Father Silence is finally put to death, but by the next morning, the detective who made the original arrest is found dead. A new serial killer is taking credit for the murder and calling himself the Outcast.

The detective’s daughter, Tess Claibourne, is a detective herself, haunted by childhood trauma and horrified by the death of her father and the resurgence of Father Silence’s legacy.

When Tess’s daughter is kidnapped by the Outcast, Tess is forced to face her worst fears and long-buried memories. With no leads to follow, she travels back to Twisted Tree to visit the boy who survived and see what secrets might be buried in the tangled web of his broken mind.

With captivating prose and an old-school horror flair, Sleep Tight is a must-read, haunting tale from a true master of the genre.

Mystery

Now in Paperback!
"An exceptional historical murder mystery." –Wall Street JournalENGLAND 1940: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, she finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms.

However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the women at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.

With her quick wit, sharp eyes, and fierce determination, will Evelyne be able to find out who’s been selling England’s secrets and catch a killer, all while battling her growing attraction to David?

From Julia Kelly, international bestselling author of The Last Dance of the Debutante, comes the first in the mysterious and immersive Parisian Orphan series, A Traitor in Whitehall.

Horror

This is one family getaway they’ll never forget . . .

Leigh Somerset wants to spend some quality time with her kids before they grow up, and her husband has always fancied himself sort of a Clark Griswold figure. So the Somersets will be spending their family vacation on the road, driving from suburban Milwaukee to Orlando, Florida. Already off to a rocky start, they stumble upon an abandoned, half-burned down farmhouse in Indiana, and the Somersets inadvertently unleash an eerie history that will follow them the rest of their trip.

From creepy indoor waterparks to paranormally plagued Cracker Barrels, it’s one thing after another in the pursuit of the great American summer road trip. Will the Somersets be able to shake these bad vibes and get on with the family bonding? Or will the road less traveled quite literally become the highway to hell?
​

Horror

Psychological horror meets cyber noir in this delicious one-sitting read—a haunted house story in which the haunting is by AI.

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William.

No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.

When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to finally meet Henry and see the new house—the smartest of smart homes—Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in.

Romance / Paranormal/Witches

Now in Paperback! Second in the Enchanted Fates Series
​
​From the author of Dirty Lying Faeries comes a new installment in the Enchanted Fates series, where a young witch finds herself on the run for her life . . . and in the company of a centuries-old dragon who may or may not be able to help save her.

Dani has never been able to use her magic. She feels like half a witch. Without the protection of a coven, she’s lost, and is being hunted by a pack of werewolves intent on claiming her for a powerful vampire’s “collection.”

When the pack catches up to her, Dani races to the top of her apartment building and chalks a circle on the roof, but her spell mistakenly lands her in the hot spring of a centuries-old dragon, Ryker. As this odd pair grows closer, the shapeshifter Ryker soon discovers the secret Dani harbors, and it turns his world upside down.  

When Dani's captured, it’s up to Ryker to come to her aid—and their relationship will rock the supernatural world in ways neither expected, because when the truth about Dani comes out, everything changes.

Romance / Paranormal / Witches

#3 in the Enchanted Fates Series.  Out now in case you can't wait for the paperback! 

From the author of Dirty Lying Faeries and Dirty Lying Dragons comes a new installment in the Enchanted Fates series in which a young woman involuntarily finds herself in the company of a rogue pack of wolves, with plenty of troubles of their own.

When Juniper stumbles across a small group of strangers during her morning power walk, she jumps in to help an injured member of the party. However, her act of kindness backfires when she’s savagely bitten by what turns out to be a very ill werewolf.

The pack’s acting leader, Dom, gives June a choice: she can return to the human world post-transformation or she can join the pack. Either way, she’ll never be the same again. 

June will have to decide if she wants to face her new reality and take her place with Dom in the pack or risk tearing everything apart.

Fantasy

The House in the Cerulean Sea by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune is back in a brand-new hardcover edition now with aqua sprayed edges!

A collector's edition!

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker is a by-the-book caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records for company. But his quiet life is about to change.
Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to an orphanage on a distant island and determine whether six dangerous magical children are so dangerous, in fact, that they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
When Linus arrives at that strangest of islands he’s greeted by a series of mysterious figures, the greatest mystery of which is Arthur Parnassus, the master of the orphanage. As Linus and Arthur grow closer, Linus discovers the master would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world has to burn. Or worse, his secret comes to light.
The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

Fantasy​

Featuring gorgeous golden yellow sprayed edges! Somewhere Beyond the Sea is the hugely anticipated sequel to TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best-loved and best-selling fantasy novels of the past decade.

A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.
He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. And there's the island's sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.
And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.

Food and Cooking

From social media to hipster menus, avocados are trending, and this utterly original cookbook from the avocado’s native Mexico celebrates the fruit that went from Aztec aphrodisiac to twenty-first-century clean-eating superfood.

Everything there is to know about avocados is here: ancient origins, amazing health properties, restorative cosmetic uses, and a recipe collection far beyond the tried and true. This book features a fresh visual design aesthetic that reflects the creative sensibility of Mexican contemporary art, graphic design, atmospheric photography, and street style.

Recipes cover everything from guacamole in many variations, salads, unusual sides, many permutations of avocado toast—even toastless avocado sandwiches—as well as less well-known and offbeat uses. The book also explores avocado butter and oil; detoxifying smoothies; rejuvenating cosmetic salves and masks, and much more. Practical matters are also addressed: an avocado overview by type; storage tips; preserving the brilliant green flesh from browning; ripening immature fruits; and safety tips for slicing and de-pitting.

Avocados are grown in Mediterranean climates globally and dominate social media, hip restaurant menus, and health-based diets, but this is the first book paying tribute to the superfruit’s deep roots as a native, Mexican heritage food.

New Release September 3

Science / Nature

If the history of the Earth were compressed down to a year, our species would arise in the last thirty minutes or so of the final hour. But life itself is not such a late arrival: It has existed on Earth for something like 3.7 billion years—most of our planet’s history and over a quarter of the age of the universe (as far as we can tell).

What have these organisms—bacteria, animals, plants and the rest—done in all this time? In Living on Earth, the philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith tells the long story of living action, and its impact. Where his acclaimed books Other Minds and Metazoa explored the riddle of how conscious minds came to exist on Earth, Living on Earth turns to what happens when we look at the mind from another side—as a cause, as a factor, in the making of the world in which we live.

To that end, Godfrey-Smith takes us on a grand tour of communication, culture, and consciousness. He visits Rwandan gorillas and Australian bowerbirds, returns to coral reefs and octopus dens, and weighs the responsibilities our powers bring with them, as they relate to factory farming, habitat preservation, and climate change. Ranging from the seas to the forests, and from animate matter’s first appearance to its future extinction, Godfrey-Smith offers a novel picture of the course of life on Earth and how we might meet the challenges of our time, the Anthropocene.

History

The story of the pivotal struggle between the Creek Indians and an insatiable, young United States for control over the Deep South—from the acclaimed historian and prize-winning author of The Earth is Weeping

The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history, leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S. soil. What began as a vicious internal conflict among the Creek Indians metastasized like a cancer. The ensuing Creek War of 1813-1814 shattered Native American control of the Deep South and led to the infamous Trail of Tears, in which the government forcibly removed the southeastern Indians from their homeland. The war also gave Andrew Jackson his first combat leadership role, and his newfound popularity after defeating the Creeks would set him on the path to the White House.

In A Brutal Reckoning, Peter Cozzens vividly captures the young Jackson, describing a brilliant but harsh military commander with unbridled ambition, a taste for cruelty, and a fraught sense of honor and duty. Jackson would not have won the war without the help of Native American allies, yet he denied their role and even insisted on their displacement, together with all the Indians of the American South in the Trail of Tears.

A conflict involving not only white Americans and Native Americans, but also the British and the Spanish, the Creek War opened the Deep South to the Cotton Kingdom, setting the stage for the American Civil War yet to come. No other single Indian conflict had such significant impact on the fate of America—and A Brutal Reckoning is the definitive book on this forgotten chapter in our history.

Horror

In this elegant gothic horror tale set in post-revolutionary Russia, two once aristocratic sisters race to uncover their family’s long-buried secrets in a house haunted by a past that is dangerous — and deadly — to remember.

It is the summer of 1921, and a group of Bolsheviks have taken over Irina and Lili Goliteva’s ancestral home in Moscow, a stately mansion falling into disrepair and decay. The remaining members of their aristocratic family are ordered to move into the cramped attic, while the officials take over an entire wing of grand rooms downstairs. The sisters understand it is the way of things and know they must forget their noble upbringing to make their way in this new Soviet Russia. But the house begins to whisper of a traumatic past not as dead as they thought.

Eager to escape it and their unwelcome new landlords, Irina and Lili find jobs with the recently arrived American Relief Administration, meant to ease the post-revolutionary famine in Russia. For the sisters, the ARA provides much-needed food and employment, as well as a chance for sensible Irina to help those less fortunate and artistic Lili to express herself for a good cause. It might just lead them to love, too.

But at home, the spirits of their deceased family awaken, desperate to impart what really happened to them during the Revolution. Soon one of the officials living in the house is found dead. Was his death caused by something supernatural, or by someone all too human? And are Irina and Lili and their family next? Only unearthing the frightening secrets of Moscow House will reveal all. But this means the sisters must dig deep into a past no one in Russia except the dead are allowed to remember.
​

Horror

Sol Reyes has had a rough year. After a series of workplace incidents at her university lab culminates in a plagiarism accusation, Sol is put on probation. Dutiful visits to her homophobic father aren’t helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-day—and all-bottle—event. Her wife, Alice Song, is far more optimistic. After all, the two finally managed to buy a house in the beautiful, gated community of Maneless Grove.
However, the neighbors are a little too friendly in Sol’s opinion. She has no interest in the pushy Homeowners Association, their bizarrely detailed contract, or their never-ending microaggressions. But Alice simply attributes their pursuit to the community motto: “Invest in a neighborly spirit”…which only serves to irritate Sol more.  
Suddenly, a number of strange occurrences—doors and stairs disappearing, roots growing inside the house—cause Sol to wonder if her social paranoia isn’t built on something more sinister. Yet Sol’s fears are dismissed as Alice embraces their new home and becomes increasingly worried instead about Sol’s drinking and manic behavior. When Sol finds a journal in the property from a resident that went missing a few years ago, she realizes why they were able to buy the house so easily…
Through Sol’s razor-sharp tongue and macabre sense of humor, Tirado explores the very real pressures to assimilate with one’s surroundings to “survive,” while also asking the question: Is it survival when you’re no longer your true self? Because in Maneless Grove, either you become a good neighbor--or you die.

History

A lively and intimate biography of trailblazing and era-defining New Yorker editor Katharine S. White, who helped build the magazine’s prestigious legacy and transform the 20th century literary landscape for women.
In the summer of 1925, Katharine Sergeant Angell White walked into The New Yorker’s midtown office and left with a job as an editor. The magazine was only a few months old. Over the next thirty-six years, White would transform the publication into a literary powerhouse.
This exquisite biography brings to life the remarkable relationships White fostered with her writers and how these relationships nurtured an astonishing array of literary talent. She edited a young John Updike, to whom she sent seventeen rejections before a single acceptance, as well as Vladimir Nabokov, with whom she fought incessantly, urging that he drop needlessly obscure, confusing words.
White’s biggest contribution, however, was her cultivation of women writers whose careers were made at The New Yorker—Janet Flanner, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Hahn, Kay Boyle, and more. She cleared their mental and financial obstacles, introduced them to each other, and helped them create now classic stories and essays. She propelled these women to great literary heights and, in the process, reinvented the role of the editor, transforming the relationship to be not just a way to improve a writer’s work but also their life.
Based on years of scrupulous research, acclaimed author Amy Reading creates a rare and deeply intimate portrait of a prolific editor—through both her incredible tenure at The New Yorker, and her famous marriage to E.B. White—and reveals how she transformed our understanding of literary culture and community.

Young Adult Horror

Urban legends and folktales are given new life in this collection of 13 spine-tingling stories from a stellar line-up of critically acclaimed authors.A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten.

Hauntings, and a variety of horrifying secrets, lurk in the places we once called home. Written by New York Times bestselling, and other critically acclaimed, authors these stories shed a harsh light on the scariest tales we grew up with.

Fairy Tales / Folk Lore

Tapping into the resurgence of interest in horror and folklore and illustrated with 75 linocut-style artworks, this contemporary, cool and highly desirable collection of scary North American legends has standout visual appeal.

"The brilliance of Frightful Folklore of North America is how it captures the expansiveness of the land, the various cultures (Native and non-Native), the stories told over time ... This impressive collection will haunt your imagination." – V. Castro

This beautifully illustrated book offers scary legends and folklore from Canada to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, including Native American tales, settlers’ stories and African-American legends, as well as ghost stories and modern tales of cryptids. Shake in your shoes as you read about:

• Qallupilluit of the Inuit These green slimy web-handed creatures hunt along the ice floes in the water in the Arctic regions, kidnapping children that wander too close.
• La Corriveau of Quebec, a woman hanged for murder and witchcraft, runs through the night in her gibbet chasing her victims.
• Ghost Moose of Maine: Hunters pursue this spectral creature until they perish.
• Resurrection Mary of Illinois is the ghost of a woman killed in a hit-and-run accident outside a Chicago dancehall who asks drivers for a ride home.
• Goatman of Alton Bridge Texas: a goatherder murdered in the early 1900s has returned as a half-goat, half-man to exact revenge.
• La Diabless of Tobago Is a young woman who made a pact with the devil. When in human form, she entraps men with her beauty and leads them astray into dark places, where they meet an untimely end.
• The Camazotz of Mexico are large man-bats that lived in the forest and hunt humans in packs.

And many, many more! Great for campfire storytelling or as a chill-inducing gift, this is the most readable and attractive book of spooky folklore on the market.​

Fairy Tales

Now in Paperback!

When mysterious faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it's too late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Folk on her adventures… and also from her fellow scholar and former rival, Wendell Bambleby. 

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and danger. 

And she also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother, invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans. 

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart. 

Horror

Now in Paperback!

​A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband, Hal, bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people. 

After four years, Margaret has learned how to live with the house—it's her house. But Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter, Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make to find Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing—because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

Cozy Mystery

A classic Golden Age locked-room cozy mystery by the author of Winnie-the-Pooh — hailed as one of the “20 Best Classic Murder Mystery Books of All Time (Town & Country, 2023)

"Has the pacing equivalent of perfect pitch . . . and spiced with funny comments on the clichés of the mystery novel" — Molly Young, The New York Times (2024)

In a quaint English country house, the exuberant Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party, but the festivities are rudely interrupted by the arrival of Mark's wayward brother, Robert, home from Austalia. Even worse, not long after his arrival the long-lost brother is found dead, shot through the head, and Mark is nowhere to be found. It is up to amateur detective Tony Gillingham and his pal Bill to investigate.

Between games of billiards and bowls, the taking of tea and other genteel pursuits, Tony and Bill attempt to crack the perplexing case of their host’s disappearance and its connection to the mysterious shooting. Can the pair of sleuths solve the Red House mystery in time for their afternoon game of croquet?

The Red House Mystery marked Milne’s first and final venture into the detective genre, despite the book’s immediate success. Praised by Raymond Chandler and renowned critic Alexander Woolcott, this gem of classic Golden Age crime sparkles with witty dialogue, an intriguing cast of characters, and a brilliant plot.

Fiction

“In Haig’s sure hands, magic comes to breathtaking life.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human.” —Benedict Cumberbatch

The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.​

Horror

8 chilling short stories that straddle the line between horror and erotica, full of passion and intrigue, from legendary 18th century Parisian aristocrat, the Marquis de Sade

“Ghouls and fiends, hapless femmes and dastardly villains; de Sade could weave a good gothic tale” — The Herald (Glasgow)

Notorious for erotic novels that use satire and social critique to challenge the aristocracy in Pre-revolutionary France, his sexual transgressive work made his name unmentionable in civilized circles. Writing about Enlightenment philosophy as much as he does about incest and adultery, de Sade’s fiction delves deep into the darkest recesses of the human psyche and remains as relevant to our society as it was to his own.

Thrumming with devious fantasies and dangerous liaisons, these gothic stories lay bare the transgressive desires of his unforgettable characters. As good behaviour gives way to wicked impulse, each finely crafted tale reveals an uncomfortable truth about human nature, from a pitch-black social comedy exposing the hypocrisies of the church to a drama-laden deep dive into adultery.

Infamous for spending decades in prison and condemned by Parisian society, de Sade’s writing provocatively challenges the morality of day, introducing through these stories a lawless locale of vice and freedom.
​

Mystery

Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, a dazzling first entry in a captivating new Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin from Celeste Connally.London, 1815. Lady Petra Forsyth, daughter of the Earl of Holbrook, has made a shocking proclamation. After losing her beloved fiancé in an accident three years earlier, she announces in front of London’s loosest lips that she will never marry. A woman of independent means—and rather independent ways—Petra sees no reason to cede her wealth and freedom to any man now that the love of her life is gone. Instead, she plans to continue enjoying the best of society without any expectations.

But when ballroom gossip suggests that a longtime friend has died of a fit due to her “melancholia” while in the care of a questionable physician, Petra vows to use her status to dig deeper. Just as Petra has reason to believe her friend is alive, a shocking murder proves more danger is afoot than she thought. And the more determined Lady Petra becomes in uncovering the truth, the more her own headstrong actions and desire for independence are used against her, putting her own freedom—and possibly her life—in jeopardy.

Poetry

Horror

With the 80's nostalgia of Stranger Things, this horror drama from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden follows neighborhood families and a mysterious, lurking evil on one Halloween day.It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask...

Fiction

Three estranged sisters return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, hope, and the complexities of family, from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left the family reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize that the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves. 

Imbued with Coco Mellors’s signature combination of humor and heart, Blue Sisters is a story of what it takes to keep living after loss—and, ultimately, to fall in love with life again.

Thriller

British spy Emma Makepeace races against the clock to stop the Russians from carrying out a high-profile assassination in this gripping thriller from the author of Alias Emma.

Emma Makepeace is headed to Edinburgh for the global G7 Summit when her team is tipped off about a high-profile assassination the Russians are planning—but they have no idea who the target is. 

Surrounded by the world’s most powerful political leaders in a gridlocked city, Emma must set a trap and use herself as bait.  

In a race against the ticking clock, Emma faces the most perilous mission of her career. How far will she go to catch the killer?

Thriller

Now in Paperback!

​Our Queen of Twists, bestselling author of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney, returns with another thrilling mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprisesTwenty years ago, a baby was stolen from a stroller. Now, when someone at a care home is killed, four women are snared in a complicated web.

Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.

Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.

With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.

In the style of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors, Good Bad Girl is a thriller in which nobody can be trusted and the twists come fast and furious.

Humor

Finally—a book plus fifty stickers to celebrate the ones who want to stay home, cancel plans, enjoy their quiet time, or read far, far into the night: the introverts!

The book features cozy snack ideas, excuses for canceling hangouts, famous introvert quotes, and so much more. Including stickers to decorate notebooks, laptop cases, or water bottles, The Little Book for Introverts is not only self-aware and in on its own joke, but also custom-made for people who just don’t want to people anymore, making it the perfect gift for your introverted friend (or just for yourself—don’t worry, we won’t tell!).

Some handy introvert excuses for when you’d rather not:

• I have to wash my everything.
• The floor is lava, and I can’t get off my couch.
• I have to keep refreshing my browser to get Taylor Swift tickets.
• I’m playing Tag with my neighbor and must stay inside and out of reach.
• My plants will miss me too much.
• I have a standing appointment to lie down.
• I’m expecting a call about extending my car’s warranty.
• My astrologer advises against it.
• My Magic 8 Ball doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

History

"As thrilling as any tale from the heroic age of exploration…Bound’s account is a triumph. The storytelling is piano-wire taut, the writing saturated with polar moodiness." ―Sunday Times
The inside story of how the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth, told by the expedition's Director of Exploration.
On November 21, 1914, after sailing more than ten thousand miles from Norway to the Antarctic Ocean, the Endurance finally succumbed to the surrounding ice. Ernest Shackleton and his crew had navigated the 144-foot, three-masted wooden vessel to Antarctica to become the first to cross the barren continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place offshore. They watched in silence as the ship’s stern rose twenty feet in the air and disappeared into the frigid sea, then spent six harrowing months marooned on the ice in its wake. Seal meat was their only sustenance as Shackleton’s expedition to push the limits of human strength took a new form: one of survival against the odds.
As this legendary story entered the annals of polar exploration, it inspired a new global race to find the wrecked Endurance, by all accounts “the world’s most unreachable shipwreck.” Several missions failed, thwarted, as Shackleton was, by the unpredictable Weddell Sea. Finally, a century to the day after Shackleton’s death, renowned marine archeologist Mensun Bound and an elite team of explorers discovered the lost shipwreck. Nearly ten thousand feet below the ice lay a remarkably preserved Endurance, its name still emblazoned on the ship’s stern.
The Ship Beneath the Ice chronicles two dramatic expeditions to what Shackleton called “the most hostile sea on Earth.” Bound experienced failure and despair in his attempts to locate the wreck, and, like Shackleton before him, very nearly found his vessel frozen in ice.
Complete with captivating photos from the 1914 expedition and of the wreck as Bound and his team found it, this inspiring modern-day adventure narrative captures the intrepid spirit that joins two mariners across the centuries—both of whom accomplished the impossible.

Economics / History

“If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, and remarkable (and short) work.” —Claudia Goldin, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University
A sweeping, engrossing history of how economic forces have shaped the world—all in under 200 pages
In How Economics Explains the World, Harvard-trained economist Andrew Leigh presents a new way to understand the human story. From the dawn of agriculture to AI, here is story of how ingenuity, greed, and desire for betterment have, to an astonishing degree, determined our past, present, and future. 
This small book indeed tells a big story. It is the story of capitalism – of how our market system developed. It is the story of the discipline of economics, and some of the key figures who formed it. And it is the story of how economic forces have shaped world history. Why didn’t Africa colonize Europe instead of the other way around? What happened when countries erected trade and immigration barriers in the 1930s? Why did the Allies win World War II? Why did inequality in many advanced countries fall during the 1950s and 1960s? How did property rights drive China’s growth surge in the 1980s? How does climate change threaten our future prosperity? You’ll find answers to these questions and more in How Economics Explains the World.

Fiction

Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story?

In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher, recently returned from Australia, lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as the star witness. Watching the proceedings, and with her own story to tell, is Eliza Touchet – cousin, housekeeper and perhaps more to failing novelist William Harrison Ainsworth.

From literary London to Jamaica’s sugarcane plantations, Zadie Smith weaves an enthralling story linking the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the comic and the tragic.

Romance

Is love on the small screen better than the real thing?

A young divorcee finds herself in the ideal world of her favorite 2000s teen soap in this second-chance, whimsical romantic comedy from the author of This Spells Love.

Newly divorced on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Brynn is sick of heartbreak. She thought she had found her happy ending, but now she’s now living with a roommate, Josh, to afford her mortgage and trying to adjust to her new single life. At least she’s got Carson’s Cove to binge, her beloved 2000s teenage soap. The show ended unexpectantly on a cliffhanger after five seasons, and the two main characters, Sloan and Spencer, never got to declare their love for one another. The show is still perfect in Brynn's eyes; despite all the drama that goes down, things always have a way of working out in Carson's Cove...unlike her own life.

So when a birthday cake surprisingly shows up on her and Josh’s doorstep, Brynn makes a wish for the one thing she always wanted (but failed to achieve herself): a happily-ever-after.

The next morning, she doesn't wake up in her apartment. She's in Carson's Cove...and Josh is there too. Everyone seems to know them, except they're not Brynn and Josh; they're Sloan, the sweetheart of Carson's Cove, and Fletch, the town's bad boy. And to get home, they have to make Brynn's wish come true by ensuring Sloan and Spencer, the hometown heartthrob, end up together at last. But as they spend more time together, Brynn and Josh realize that Carson's Cove might not be as perfect as seen on tv...especially when they start developing feelings for each other in a plot twist nobody expected. Will they stick to the script, or will real love change the story forever?
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Fiction

Now in Paperback

"An instant classic . . . Anyone who starts The Bee Sting will be immediately absorbed by this extraordinary story about the derailing of a once-prosperous family." —Ron Charles, The Washington PostThe Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.

If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?

Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel, The Bee Sting, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.

Fiction

"An instant classic . . . Anyone who starts The Bee Sting will be immediately absorbed by this extraordinary story about the derailing of a once-prosperous family." —Ron Charles, The Washington PostThe Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.

If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?

Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel, The Bee Sting, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.

Fiction

Now in Paperback!
​An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A Today Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

"I dare you not to fall wildly in love with Grace...It's a book about love, about grace, about even when we fall from those we love we can always find our way home...You will laugh on the first page and you will keep laughing until you're crying on the last page." ?Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink—who finally pushes back.Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.

Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

Kids 9-12

A humorous and moving middle-grade, illustrated novel about a shelter that houses stray dogs—and robot dogs!—from powerhouse authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko.Dogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, misbehaving dogs, and discarded robot dogs whose owners have outgrown them.

Chance, a real dog, has been in Dogtown since her owners unwittingly left her with irresponsible dog-sitters who skipped town.

Metal Head is a robot dog who dreams of being back in a real home.

And Mouse is a mouse who has the run of Dogtown, pilfering kibble, and performing clever feats to protect the dogs he loves.

When Chance and Metal Head embark on an adventure to find their forever homes, there is danger, cheese sandwiches, a charging station, and some unexpected kindnesses along the way.

From beloved authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko, Dogtown is at once an uplifting story and a page-turning adventure, sure to find a forever home in readers’ hearts.

New Releases August 20

Romance

Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they u

Romance

Painfully shy Callum Flannelly would rather dive into an open grave than take a stranger to dinner. But he can only inherit the family undertaking business under one condition: He must marry before his 35th birthday. Texan animator Lark Thompson moved to Galway, Ireland, to restart her life and career, not be reminded of losing her husband by moving in next to a funeral home.  

But when she learns of Callum’s dilemma, Lark’s certain she can help him find The One, even if she’s sworn off love herself. Though as the dating project progresses and Lark spends more time with straight-laced, sarcastic Callum, he starts to crack the ice around her grieving heart. And the more joy that vivacious Lark brings to Callum’s grey existence, the less he can imagine letting her return to Texas.

If they think they can ignore their connection, they’re dead wrong.

Thriller

You thought you were home alone.

Anya is enjoying a relaxing bath when she hears a noise coming from the ceiling. Through the open bathroom door, she sees the attic hatch swing down, and a masked figure drops to the floor. Thirty seconds later, Anya is dead.

You're not afraid of being alone in the dark. You're afraid you're not alone.

Across town, Anya's old school friend, Julia, sees an online video of a masked figure climbing out of an attic. She suddenly realizes why the footage is eerily familiar: it was filmed inside her own house in a luxury gated community, designed to keep intruders out.

And now your worst fears are coming true.

Why would a stranger target Julia? Unless of course, it's not a stranger at all.

Social Science

Based on the popular podcast, Obitchuary will be a funny but “deadly” serious look at the way that Americans handle death, mourning, and the commemoration of people they love.

It's safe to say everyone thinks about death. But have you ever wondered about what sort of keepsakes you can make with your remains, or the most scandalous deathbed confessions throughout history? Well Madison Reyes and Spencer Henry have, and they've spent countless hours scouring the darkest corners of the internet, digging through newspaper archives, devouring documents, and picking the brains of death industry experts to bring you Obitchuary, a darkly funny and deeply poignant exploration of all things Death. 

With illustrated chapters like "Keep In Touch" on seance, ouija, and the history of connecting to the dead, "Obituaries" on the wildest real-life obituaries, and "Pet Cemetary" on the inventive things people do for their deceased pets and the ways in which pets mourn their owners, Madison and Spencer guide us through surprisingly colorful history, traditions, and contemporary practises to demystify taboo topics. 

Shocking, macabre, hilarious, and moving, Obitchuary digs deep into the physical aspects of death while also carefully exploring what death says about our humanity, and the ways we choose to remember those we've lost. So go ahead, crack open the book-- we know you're dying to read.

Fiction / Magical Realism

Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this charming and magical novel, inspired by the myth of cats returning favors to those who care for them, reminds us that it's never too late to follow our stars.

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they'll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.

This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives.

It's also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives veered off course. 

Because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop's feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them...

Fantasy

For fans of Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecary and Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches, this lush, atmospheric novel from the author of Where Ivy Dares to Grow blends witchcraft, queer love, a vibrant Edinburgh setting, and Scottish folklore for a propulsive and emotional story exploring what it means to resist the patriarchy and find your voice.

“A lyrical and hauntingly beautiful new voice.” —Hester Fox, Author of A Lullaby for Witches

In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person. Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Women’s Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.

Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witch’s ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction. When heart-breaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the world—until love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back.

Nellie’s past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to run—either from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many forms—and finding one’s own magical inner-strength.

Kids 9-12

Shenanigan Swift is headed to Paris, where new mysteries await in the hilarious, quick-witted sequel to Beth Lincoln’s #1 New York Times bestseller, The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels.

“Abundant wordplay and humor will keep the pages turning.″ --Kirkus, starred review

Now that the family reunion is over and the murderer has been caught, Shenanigan Swift can return to important projects, like searching for the long-lost family treasure. But trouble always finds Shenanigan, and when a valuable painting is stolen from Swift House by a group of eccentric art thieves known as Ouvolpo, she is determined to get it back—even if it means chasing them all the way to Paris. A new adventure is about to begin, and Shenanigan’s sleuthing skills will soon be tested like never before.

A Gallery of Rogues is the highly anticipated sequel to Beth Lincoln’s celebrated debut, A Dictionary of Scoundrels. Beloved characters are back, joined by a fresh flock of relatives from the French branch of the Swift family tree—the Martinets, including Cousins Soufflé, Mercredi, Contraire, and Pomme. Get ready to say bonjour to more secrets, more bodies, and even more fun, in this delicious mystery that once again celebrates words, family, and plenty of shenanigans.
Contributor Bio(s)
Beth Lincoln was raised in a former Victorian railway station in the North of England. Her childhood fears included porcelain dolls, the Durham panther, and wardrobes that looked at her funny. She grew neither tall nor wise, and never learned to play an instrument—but she did write stories, a bad habit that has persisted to this day. When she isn’t writing, Beth is woodcarving, or making a mess of her flat, or talking the nearest ear off about unexplained occurrences. Her favorite things include ghosts, crisps, and weird old words like bumbershoot and zounderkite.

The Swifts was Beth’s debut novel. It grew out of her love of etymology, the gleeful gothic, and classic murder mysteries. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her partner and hopefully, by the time you are reading this, a dog.
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Social Science

An eye-opening, illustrated look at something we often take for granted—our trash, and the systems in place that make it disappear (or not)

In a world of mass consumption and busy schedules, taking the time to understand our own trash habits can be daunting. In Trash Talk, the ever-curious and talented Iris Gottlieb pulls back the curtain on the intricacies of the global trash production system and its contribution to climate change. From the history of the mafia’s rule of the New York sanitation system to orbital debris (space trash) to the myth of recycling, Gottlieb will help readers see trash in a whole new way.
    Complete with beautiful illustrations and several landfills’ worth of research, Trash Talk shines a much-needed light on a system that has been broken for far too long, providing readers with surprising, disgusting, and insightful information to better understand how we affect garbage and how it affects us.

Historical Fiction

An airline captain crafts a riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the remarkable true life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the airA few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton ?elds with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie was fearless. She knew there was freedom in those wings.

The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration. She moves to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men—Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago’s first Black bank. Abbott becomes her mentor, while Binga becomes her lover. Her true first love, though, remains flying.

But in 1920, no one in the United States will train a Black woman to fly. So, twenty-eight-year-old Bessie learns to speak French and sets off for Europe. Two years ahead of Amelia Earhart, Bessie earns her pilot's license, and later she learns death-defying stunts from French and German dogfighting combat pilots.

While she finds no prejudice in the air, Bessie wrestles with other challenges on the ground. A plane crash nearly kills her, her brothers seem to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and, while grappling with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds in the sky means she must otherwise fly solo.

With tenderness and mastery, Carole Hopson imagines the breathtaking moxie Bessie Coleman harnessed in order to lift herself out of poverty and become known as “Queen Bess.”

New Releases August 13

Thriller

Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country, where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving much from their long friendship unspoken. Although the state of Maine has convulsed all summer with secession mania—a mania that has simultaneously spread across other states—Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or, worst-case scenario, folks in the capital.

But after weeks hunting off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked by what they find: a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road. Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, they set their sights on finding their way home, dragging a wagon across bumpy dirt roads, scavenging from boats left in lakes, and dodging armed men—secessionists or U.S. military, they cannot tell—as they seek a path to safety. Then, a startling discovery drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape.

Drenched in the beauty of the natural world and attuned to the specific cadences of male friendship, even here at the edge of doom, Burn is both a blistering warning about a divided country’s political strife and an ode to the salvation found in our chosen families.

History / Middle East

“A brilliant and heart-wrenching book that captures the daily tragedy of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation better than any other I have read. An outstanding achievement and a must read.”
—Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the OttomansFive-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama Nathan Thrall—hailed for his “severe allergy to conventional wisdom” (Time)—offers an indelibly human portrait of the struggle over Israel/Palestine and a new understanding of the tragic history and reality of one of the most contested places on earth.

Horror

From bestselling author Alex Grecian comes a folk horror epic about a ragtag posse that must track down a witch through a wild west beset by demons and ghosts—and where death is always just around the bend.Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense between them – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.

Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is a supernatural adventure of luck and misfortune.

Fiction 

"This fascinating, off-kilter novel about a female serial killer is an unexpectedly thrilling read.”
—Karl Ove Knausgård, author of My Struggle and The Morning Star

Based on the true story of Norwegian maid Belle Gunness, 19th-century America’s most notorious serial killer with a body count of at least 14 men. My Men is a fictional account of one broken woman's descent into inescapable madness.

My Men is a harrowing read about an enigmatic historical figure: Brynhilde Belle Gunness, a Norwegian servant girl turned serial killer after emigrating to America in the wake of a hopeless love affair at home. She thought she was following her sister to a better life, but what she found in America was a society ruled by the same rigid moral codes that oppressed her at home. Consumed by desire, and thirsty for the love and recognition she never received during her impoverished formative years, Belle seeks revenge on the world that broke her. As Belle racks up a body count of at least 14 men, she grows increasingly alienated, ruthless, and—perversely—compelling.

Kielland writes urgently and thoughtfully about a broken person, one who yearns for liberation from the trappings of her class, gender, and traumatic past. My Men is a powerful and intense read, where the turn to violence is barely noticeable, but when it happens, there is no coming back.

Romance / Paranormal

Werewolf Ben Rosewood is happy with his life. One hundred percent. Everything is fine. His business, Ben’s Plant Emporium, is thriving, and he’s even expanding the shop. His anxiety disorder is…well, it’s been better, but that comes with the territory of running a business and having beastly urges every full moon, right? As for romance—who has the time? Though his family is desperate to see him settled, Ben is fine approaching forty as a single werewolf. But after drunkenly bidding on and winning a supposedly-possessed crystal on eBay one night, he finds himself face-to-face with a beautiful yet angry vampire.

Eleonore Bettencourt-Devereux is a rare breed—a vampire succubus born from two elite European bloodlines during medieval times. Thanks to an evil witch, she’s been stuck in a crystal since she was thirty, forced to obey orders from the possessor of the rock. Eleonore's been dreaming of breaking the spell and severing the witch’s head for centuries. But did this witch really sell her to someone new, and for only ninety-nine cents?

Eleonore would claw this werewolf’s heart out and eat it, if only the binding spell would allow her to. But Eleonore and Ben soon realize they can help each other with both vengeful and less hostile needs. And why not have a little fun along the way?

Romance

An arranged marriage leads to unexpected desire, in the first book of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Alyssa Cole’s Runaway Royals series—for the first time in trade paperback.
When Shanti Mohapi weds the king of Njaza, her dream of becoming a queen finally comes true. But it’s nothing like she imagined. Shanti and her husband may share an immediate and powerful attraction, but her subjects see her as an outsider, and everything she was taught about being the perfect wife goes disastrously wrong.
A king must rule with an iron fist, and newly crowned King Sanyu was born perfectly fitted for the gauntlet, even if he wishes he weren’t. He agrees to take a wife as is required of him, though he doesn’t expect to actually fall in love. Even more vexing? His beguiling new queen seems to have the answers to his country’s problems—except no one will listen to her.
By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.

Mystery

A new mystery is afoot in the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series from million-copy bestselling author Richard Osman

It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club.

Shocking news reaches them—an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters—as well as heartache close to home—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust.

With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out?

And who will be the last devil to die?

Historical Fiction

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

“Lady Macbeth doesn’t retell Shakespeare so much as slice cleanly through it, revealing what was hidden beneath. I couldn't look away.”—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. 

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. 

She does not know this yet. But she will.
​

Reference

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
2017. America is drastically divided and, some would argue, is starting to resemble George Orwell’s portrayal of a totalitarian state in his iconic novel, 1984. In the age of alternative facts, internal hostility, and President Donald Trump, a large portion of America is begging for a way to cope with the uncertainty looming over the country.

On 1984: Quotes for the Orwellian Future Happening Today is filled with hundreds of alarmingly relevant quotes by notable people of the past and present, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Che Guevara, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and George Orwell himself. The quotes within the book are each separated by topic. The subjects addressed include fear, prejudice, power, corruption, alternative facts, resistance, and many other pertinent topics to the current state of the United States, and the world at large.

The book features classic memorable quotes sure to inspire and enlighten in these troubling times, such as: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ?George Orwell
Contributor Bio(s)
James Daley is a writer, editor, and designer of various paper-based and digital things. Since finishing his MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004, he has been spending most of his time teaching writing to college students, creating websites about video games, and writing mystery novels about pensive young ne’erdowells. When he's not obsessively poring over pixels and pronouns, he can usually be found arguing with strangers on the Internet or seeking out adventure with his indomitable wife and venturesome daughters.

Fiction / Women

Dangerous secrets. A toxic workplace. And an unsolved murder. . . . A football professional reckons with the choices that made her career in the boys' club world of sports possible in this riveting and sharp Friday Night Lights meets I Know What You Did Last Summer debut

Poppy Benjamin, Media Relations Director of Syracuse's storied NFL team, the Bobcats, fought tooth and nail for her career. Ever since her intern season fifteen years ago, it's been nothing but early mornings, late nights, barely-dodged inappropriate advances, and relationships lost with boyfriends who didn't get it. That's why Poppy relies on the Women Against Groping Shitheads, a support network that knows her far better than her own family. In-house counsel for an NBA team, a celebrated reporter--all of the W.A.G.S. are high-ranking women in sports who need a release from the indignities and frustrations that come with navigating the ultimate boys’ club.

But on the very same morning that Poppy’s legendary head coach is found dead in his home, five notes threatening tell the truth or pay the consequences hit the W.A.G.S. like 300-pound linebackers. Who's aware of the little group they've tried their best to keep under wraps, and what reason would they have to threaten it? As long-buried secrets are brought to light, Poppy is forced to revisit a dangerous mistake from the start of her career that puts everything she's built at risk.

An unmissable novel about responsibility, regret, clouded moral compasses, and the ins and outs of professional football.

Young Adult / Thriller

An epic survival-thriller about four teens who get lost in the Paris catacombs for days—a gripping and propulsive story of love, danger, betrayal, and hope… even when all seems lost.

"Tense and fast-moving, with a unique setting and compelling characters, Under the Surface is Diana Urban’s best yet."—Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying


Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart. 

Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further.

But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a  mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.

Underground, as something sinister chases them, they get lost in the endless maze of bones, uncovering dark secrets about the catacombs…..and each other. And if they can’t find a way out, they’ll die in the dark beneath the City of Light. 

Aboveground, Sean races to find the girl he loves as a media frenzy over the four missing teens begins.

From award-winning author and rising YA star Diana Urban comes a twisty tale of four teens lost in the dark beneath the City of Light and the race to find them.

For Writers

A practical guide to help authors authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than their own.Do you have the tools to authentically write and edit a character whose identity is different than your own? It’s not a subject that’s generally taught in creative writing programs. There are few online resources, but in terms of craft books, what exists is outdated or limited in its scope. Some seminars and classes are offered by independent writing workshops, but can you learn everything you need to know in a three-hour seminar or even a four-week class? Not at all. You need a book on hand to provide guidance and insight as you craft characters with historically marginalized identities. That’s where this book comes in.

In Writing an Identity Not Your Own, award-winning author Alex Temblador will discuss one of the most contentious topics in creative writing: crafting a character whose identity is historically marginalized. She’ll begin by discussing what she means by ‘identity’ and why it’s important to understand the state of diversity in publishing, before delving into how unconscious bias and bias blocks are the biggest obstacles to this writing approach. From there, you’ll learn about intersectional identities and specific things to consider when writing different race/ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, disabilities, nationalities, and more. Alex will guide writers through the pre-writing phase to the editing process so they can gain a full understanding of the complexities of writing other identities and why it’s important to get it right.